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1: Does language occupy sacred space?
BonnieRobin Mariela Watau
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This is the penultimate, or second-to-last issue of the Third Quarter of our Third Year of publishing Perspectives from the Stair. One of my girlfriends asked me why all the articles sound like they're written by the same person. I gave her the deer-in-the-headlights look. "Why make a problem out of the goal?" It's the editor's purpose to build a common voice for the magazine.
Our voice for this quarter has been Norman Rockwell's classic series of four paintings: The Four Freedoms. Like the four walls of a typical framed home, all four must remain intact to shield us from storms. Freedom of religion depends on freedom of speech. Freedom from fear depends on freedom of speech. For either, true freedom means there are no life-threatening consequences from our valid speech (of which see below), such as those who abuse the precepts of Islam to commit terrorism.
 
  Images: Norman Rockwell Museum
If we aspire to the privilege and responsibilities of leadership, do we understand the role speech plays in creating, maintaining or violating that sacred space? The human dimension in business is where so many people talk the talk, yet do not walk the walk. Serve people, exploit tools – never the other way around!
If you live outside the polluted major industrial cities and you cannot see the air you breathe, that doesn't mean there is no air, does it? It's easy to agree that the air is there, even though we can't see it, yes or yes? The fact that there is air is an example of an objective truth: it doesn't depend on our opinion, just like the reality of gravity, or the sun rising in the east. These examples have been used many times in this newsletter, so if you're feeling that you've read it before, it's on purpose.
Why we live in a republic not a democracy (or why less is more)
The apocryphal Chinese proverb "may you live in interesting times…" [1, 2] is being played out before our very eyes! Every federal official and every member of the US Armed Services takes the oath of office [1, 2, 3], which says in part:
“defend…against all enemies, foreign and domestic…So help me God.”
Since there clearly is an exception in reciting the Oath for those who can't figure out they're not the center of the universe, it seems patently obvious that the emperor-in-his-own-mind, David Bunning was fishing for trouble in Rowan County. No only is it embarrassing that the 6th Circus leads the nation in decisions remanded or vacated [1, 2]; there are plenty of examples of people who got on with the business of governing, rather than having their 15 minutes of fame at someone else's expense.
If you don't love your peeps…
When members of the baby boomer generation grew up, television stations ended their broadcast day, or 'went off the air' often at midnight. People considered the silence as natural; the ordinary and normal state of affairs, because it reflected the natural world outside the constructed world of man.
Two score years later, zealous advocacy organizations like MSNBC and Russia Today [1, 2] compete to see who can come the closest to resembling a news agency, without actually reporting facts.
…they will know & return the favor!
The lack of trust that Yankelovich talks about at Public Agenda (above) has reached epic proportions. Trust is a give first then get transaction (both parties give then get).
Those who lack humility often find it difficult to face the objective truth that reality doesn't bend to their will. Often this leads to embarrassing results, such as we now view the Dred Scott decision.
Cor ad cor loquitur
The English translation of this venerable Latin adds the 2nd half that was well understood back in the day: Heart speaks to heart before mind is open to mind. The practical reality is that only rarely do people do business with people they do not like. That is an overlooked yet vital clause: people only do business with people, no matter how many talking heads say otherwise. No matter how many layers of abstraction we have to remove, Steve Bollman's words ring true: every time you make or spend € 0.89…, you are interacting with another person.
Based on two generations of well-orchestrated social manipulation, the chattering classes scarcely remember the stirring words of Emma Lazarus
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
F Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus
The New Trojan Horse?
The wretched refuse on both our teaming shores has never been more evident. They are being imported at great cost to themselves and the US taxpayer. They're being given symbols of authenticity [1, 2] with the same zeal as MSNBC and RT acting as news outlets.
When we put on our marketing hats and explain that the Systemkey™ Risk Modeling Language (SRML) has a syntax and a grammar, we make a direct appeal to objective truth. Syntax is the unchanging rules for making meaning.
When Pontius Pilot asks Christ "What is Truth?" he's speaking as a hollow man; as one who, while in authority, looks to others for moral clarity. This hollowing out is typical of bureaucracies, via the boiling frog syndrome [see also: 1, 2, 3].
Examples of how to avoid this soul-deadening are Eight Creative Tensions, first discussed in Science, 14 July 1967 and again in Complexity Management.
- ? In R&D labs, invest in both pure research and its application, ranging from fundamental aspects to tech services.
- ? Intellectually independent yet interact vigorously.
- ? Young scientists & engineers flourish if they spend a few years on a main project while developing cross-disciplinary insights; avoiding the snare of narrowly specializing.
- ? As they mature, retained interest in "deep dives" into a topic while enjoying the freedom to chart new paths.
- ? Too much autonomy is ineffective: security and lack of challenge is a death knell for creativity; a variety of signal inputs keeps the "neurons fresh" and open to new ideas.
- ? In organizations with some coordination, best solutions come from those with autonomy in pursuing challenges viewed as important by the team.
- ? Those who strongly influence key decision-makers were richest contributors, yet conversely they flourished when a mentoring group had a voice in goal-setting.
- ? Consistent support among peers who relished creative conflict characterized long-term high performers.
- ? At the maturity level where research and development team members had identified specific interests yet had not lost the quest for new vistas, they were the most productive to their business units.
- ? Groups which remained intellectually vigorous preferred peers of diverse operating styles and strongly-held views.
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Restoring faith in our currencies is a very human endeavor: there are no shortcuts!
When Matt & I collaborate on the Blue Two™ business fable series, we're creating roadmaps for just such journeys as these.
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2: Gnoblochy: how a thimbleful of preparation beats a pound of apology.
1st in a series
Our intrepid reporter, Thadeus Deus, was invited into a news event…
where all the journos were apparently fanboys (& girls) of the speaker. This pompous talking bon-bon was spewing forth nothing but unrelated neologisms, so it seemed to Bad Thad, as his friends nicknamed him. He whispered a comment to one of the serious-looking young men standing close to him:
"Doesn't this guy realize he's talking gibberish?"
At that the reporter blurted out: "Strike One!" and the crowded field scattered back in a circle just like a bar of soap touching a pan of greasy water.
The speaker stopped mid-sentence (well, Thaddeus had no idea if it was a sentence at all, but being a genial chap, he was prepared to grant the benefit of the doubt…) Rather than glare at him, the speaker's gaze was one of distressed loving reproof, such as might be given to a favored son or daughter who loudly passed gas at a formal dinner party.
"Thadeus Deus come forward" he said kindly.
"How do you know my name? I've never been here before."
quot;That much is very evident young man. You were selected because you showed promise, yet your peers are questioning my judgment. What do you have to say for yourself?"
"About what Sir? I don't understand."
"Again, that is all too disappointingly evident. Did you fail to make even the slightest preparation for what typically is the turning point in a young journalists' career?"
Thaddeus looked around to see 79 pairs of eyes intently staring at him. Those in the back straining to get sight of this feckless fellow, yet equally cautious not to make a scene of their own, lest they be dubbed a trader in the pit. Recognizing that discretion is the better part of valour, Thaddeus speaks:
"Apparently not nearly enough Sir. Why is this night different from all other nights?"
The mob of onlookers breaks into cheers and the speaker's demeanor softens into a smile.
"While I think you have saved yourself by the razor's edge of luck, I will grant you the point, set and match. You may remain. I will not ask you if you are familiar with the works of Leo Strauss.
All here are far too aware that you are not. Redeem yourself by studying What if Strauss was right? this week. Someone will be in touch to schedule a more comprehensive orientation prior to your next event. Be a good lad now and Ite, missa est. [1, 2]"
A combination of gasps from the women and murmurs from the men fills his ears, as they clear a path for him to leave. Well, dear reader, what about it? Is Strauss right? Let us know by emailing your comments to Roe Emmon Dillon.
Interested in more detail?
Reach out to us [1, 2] to schedule an intro call. Our dialog-driven risk discovery model makes real work fun to accomplish.
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3: So if we're in a culture war, who are the good guys?
Governments create black markets and underground|competing economies to the degree that they debase their currency. In the US, we have debased both our fiscal currency, (going off the gold standard to fiat money), and more ominously, we have debased our cultural currency, the real measure of national worth.
Like the Soviet era newspaper, Правда (Pravda = Truth), which published total nonsense, RT and sadly, many US agencies continue the practice today of debasing a governing body's most vital currency: trust.
Without cultural trust, parties to a transaction demand a traceable path to objective truth: be that specie, land, gems, or perhaps in the future, Bitcoin.
In such a topsy-turvy world, we must adopt new filtering practices, since financial and political corruption make face value often irrelevant [ 1, 2].
To find the 'good guys' we can use the technique of home-on-jam (Pick Chapter 11 Countermeasures to learn more) to turn the SoPo Law Center inside out. Researching their 'extremist' profiles is a good index of people that ascribe to the Western Cultural Canon:
- » work hard, play hard,
- » give more than you take,
- » leave the campsite better than you found it,
- » do unto others as you would have them do unto you (the Golden Rule),
- » respect laws enacted by direct vote of the people, or their validly elected representatives.
These values had been so widely accepted that they form the basis for the typical charitable organization's mission. Background on many such private organizations are available from the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
As mentioned in my better half's article above, truth is the currency that is free to establish, yet vastly expensive to repair if debased. For some three score years (that's 60 years, as in the Gettysburg Address: four score and seven), the merchants of mayhem in banking & politics have been Slouching Toward Gomorrah. These tyrants have not only declared war on work, as unforgettably conveyed by Mike Rowe in a stunningly insightful TED talk (from our STETA blog), they have declared war on truth!
When five unelected tyrants in black robes feel free to disregard their oath of office, interesting times are ahead indeed. I'll bookend this article with the same thought with which I opened:
Governments create black markets and underground|competing economies to the degree that they debase their currency. In the US, we have debased both our fiscal currency, more ominously, we have debased our cultural currency, which is the true measure of our national worth.
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